While outrage-fueled FCC complaints are usually a source of glee for people who love to laugh at people who take things too seriously, some of the umbrage directed against Stephen Colbert for referring to President Trump’s mouth as a receptacle for the genitalia of Vladimir Putin made some good points.
When homosexual imagery is invoked to inspire disgust or shock in people, it’s as damaging as slurs that purposely denigrate the LGBTQ community. And that outrage is felt, deeply:
This person was far more measured in their criticism:
This next complaint is a reminder that what some people call “political correctness,” others consider to be common decency, and when someone is cavalier about the feelings of an entire group of people who have been (and continue to be) persecuted and marginalized it’s damaging, especially when it comes from a person who portrays himself as an ally:
In addition to people who took issue with Colbert using the image of dude on dude fellatio for laughs from the douche-bro demographic, there were of course people who find the very idea that homosexuality even exists disgusting.
Or this one, which reads like it came from the desk of Donald Trump himself:
Sure you are.
Then we have this viewer doing his best impression of Joseph Welch:
Speaking of McCarthy, then there’s this busybody who feels compelled to tell all the card-carrying communists in federal government how to do their job:
All told, with one dubious joke Colbert somehow managed to unite both Trump supporters and Trump detractors in righteous indignation. So … good job?
However one might feel about the joke itself, in the interest of preserving of what’s left of free speech in this country, perhaps consider changing the station before firing off an email to the FCC. Read the full complaints embedded below, or on the request page.
Image via CBS